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The biggest question surrounding Arkansas basketball this offseason has been Isaiah Joe’s looming decision to remain in the NBA Draft or return to school for his junior season.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the original withdrawal date has been pushed back two months to Aug. 3, so the Razorbacks have been forced to wait longer than ever before to finalize their roster for the upcoming season.
Earlier this month, head coach Eric Musselman said the process - which he went through multiple times at Nevada - was already really challenging, so it’s even more so with the compressed timeline. From those experiences, though, he’s developed an approach to deal with the problem.
“We’ve got two different depth charts and two different game plans,” Musselman said. “Until we find out one way or the other, we’ll just keep proceeding one team with him and one team without him.”
With that in mind, HawgBeat decided to take a crack at what those depth charts could look like.
It is an incredibly difficult task because 10 of the players have never suited up for the Razorbacks before, so we really have a firm grasp on only three of them - including Joe - and are basing everything else off Musselman’s comments in press conferences and what we know about them before getting to Arkansas.
For the purpose of this exercise, the depth chart without Joe includes only 12 players. Arkansas could bring in another transfer to fill that scholarship, but it’s hard to speculate who that player would be and Musselman has proven he isn’t afraid of leaving a spot open if he can’t fill it with what he’s looking for.
With Isaiah Joe
Jalen Tate / K.K. Robinson / Davonte Davis
Isaiah Joe / Desi Sills / JD Notae
Moses Moody / Vance Jackson
Justin Smith / Ethan Henderson / Abayomi Iyiola
Connor Vanover / Jaylin Williams
